Friends mourn Markham family after tragic quadruple murder

Abuhana Quraishi has been left with nothing but memories of a life-changing journey with a man he calls “his brother,” after reports he is one the victims of a quadruple murder in Markham.At 3:17 p.m. Sunday, officers from York Regional Police arrived at a brick, two-storey home on Markham’s Castlemore Ave. to investigate a report that multiple people had possibly been hurt. There, they discovered a horrific scene: three women and a man dead inside. A young man was waiting at the home’s salmon pink front door. Menhaz Zaman, 23, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder. York Regional Police have not released the identities of the four victims, or Menhaz’s relationship with them. On Tuesday, the victims were undergoing post-mortem examinations, after which time police say they will provide their names and release the cause of death. A former tenant of the Zaman family home, Ammara Riaz, told the Star the people living in the house included Moniruz Zaman, his wife Momotaz, their daughter Malesa and son Menhaz, as well as a grandmother. An acquaintance has identified the grandmother as Firoza Begum, the mother of Momotaz.Meanwhile, a friend of Moniruz Zaman, Abuhana Quraishi, who travelled with him on the plane when the two immigrated in 1987 spoke about his friend and their journey to Canada together.Quraishi and Moniruz met in the fall of 1987 in Amsterdam, as the two made their way across Europe. “We met while staying in a hostel,” Quraishi said. “We were about the same age. We came here on the same flight.”They landed in Montreal in January 1988, where Moniruz invited Quraishi to stay with him and his brother until he got settled. “His older brother came here about five years before us,” Quraishi said. “He (Moniruz’s brother) was a business man and owned a store.”Quraishi stayed for about a month, before finding his own apartment in Montreal. At one point, he fell ill with pneumonia. “They took care of me,” he said of the brothers.Quraishi moved to Toronto in 1989.Moniruz followed, arriving around 1991. Quraishi repaid the generosity shown by Moniruz and his brother by inviting him to stay with him in his modest Crescent Town apartment, near Victoria Park Ave. and Danforth Ave. Moniruz returned to Bangladesh to marry Momotaz in 1994, and after arriving back in Canada with his new bride, he moved out of the shared apartment into an apartment close by, before purchasing his first home on McCowan Rd., Quraishi said.“He was my best friend here,” Quraishi, 62, said Tuesday outside a Danforth Road store, just a few blocks south of the Crescent Town apartment the two men shared a few years after landing in Canada. “We had a very strong relationship.”They haven’t been as close in recent years, but when Quraishi was sick with colon cancer in 2017, his friend visited him and called to check in on his condition.“He came by with his wife,” he said. The last call was about a month ago.“My entire family is shocked,” said Quraishi, who found out about his friends alleged demise from friends Monday. “It is not easy.”“Everyone is calling me trying to find out more,” he said.Shoma Kahn, a former administrative assistant at the Riverdale Community Women’s Centre, located in the Greenwood Ave. and Gerrard St. area, recalls Firoza Begum, visiting the centre in 2011. She was shocked to see pictures of Begum circulating in media coverage of the home where the bodies were found.“I was like, ‘oh my God,’ I know this lady,” Kahn recalls uttering to relatives once the pictures started surfacing Monday. “She was a very happy kind of lady. “After being in Canada for a few years she came to our place,” Kahn said of Begum’s visit to the centre that provides assistance to South Asian immigrants.She said Begum, who was in her 60s at the time, was seeking assistance in finding a subsidized seniors apartment.“I spoke her language (Bengali), so I interpreted for her,” she said, adding that at the time Begum was living with her daughter. “She got the apartment and she was very happy. She just took the apartment because she wanted a place for herself, but most of the time she used to live with her daughter.”“She used to talk about the grandchildren all the time. They were so close to her,” Kahn said.Get more of today’s top stories in your inboxSign up for the Star’s Morning Headlines newsletter for a briefing of the day’s big news.Sign Up NowA GoFundMe page started to cover funeral costs said the Zaman family had been victimized by a “tragic homicide” that took place in their home. By Tuesday evening, the account had raised more than $7,800. “I’ve known Malesa for over 12 years. We first met in the third grade and I’ve grown with her ever since. She’s been my go-to for as long as I can remember … She had the sweetest heart and was always willing to listen and care for everyone she knew,” a friend wrote on the GoFundMe page. Hours before Menhaz Zaman was arrested and later charged with four counts of first-degree murder, an international online gaming community grew increasingly alarmed by the messages of one of its members, and started reaching out to Canadian police authorities, realizing the disturbing claims made by a user named “Menhaz” may not have been just talk.Though alleged killer Menhaz Zaman was known as a “troll” who would take jokes to the extreme and post self-deprecating comments — including calling himself “sub-human” — “none of us expected him” to allegedly commit murder, said a public post by Maroon Ayoub, an administrator of a popular online gaming chat app forum for the multiplayer online game Perfect World. In messages to the Star Tuesday, Ayoub, who is based in Israel, said a fellow forum administrator began attempting to contact authorities early Sunday morning after a user named “Menhaz” began sending concerning private messages to some users about his family. In the postings, some of which have been seen by the Star, he described being depressed and having lost faith in God, lying to his parents about going to university and dropping out of an engineering program after failing classes. He wrote that he had told his parents he would be graduating from university July 28.The concerned members of the forum had little information about where Menhaz lived, Ayoub said. “They only knew of the act and that he is Canadian. The admin did pull out Menhaz’s IP (Internet Protocol address) from our database but apparently it wasn’t the one needed,” Ayoub said. A York police spokesperson said Tuesday that she could not comment on the specifics of how police were contacted on Sunday, due in part to the ongoing court process. But she said if there were relevant online conversations, that would be considered evidence. “Those things are things investigators are going to be looking at,” said Const. Laura Nicolle. In his post, Ayoub said the account linked to Menhaz had been “more offensive than the usual.” In messages to the Star, Ayoub said he nonetheless seemed like a “chill guy.” Those who say they know the alleged killer are shocked.“(He) seemed understanding and rational, mature as well. He was one of the few I’d consider ‘good people,’ (which is) kinda scary,” Ayoub said.Responding to Ayoub’s public comments, which were posted on a “Perfect World Void” forum post titled the “Markham Massacre,” other gamers expressed their sadness and surprise at Menhaz’s arrest. A YouTube channel by a user named “Menhaz” that features the same Perfect World avatar as the one used on the gaming chat app includes two short videos — one from 2015, the other from 2017. Menhaz Zaman appeared in court in Newmarket Monday and was remanded in custody. He will next appear Friday via video.With files from Evy Kwong, Sahar Fatima and Mary OrmsbyWendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillisJason Miller is a breaking news reporter based in Toronto. Reach him on email: jasonmiller@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @millermotionpic